Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

[jenova_9]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

Fully voiced cows are awesome though!!



/EAWareboycott

mew!

[Taskmage]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

Tough choice between a Quarian or Salarian.

Tough choice between Asari and Drell.

On the subject of TOR, I'm enjoying it quite a bit. The role-playing elements are excellent and the class stories are generally very good, but I find it has the opposite problems that FFXI had in the beginning. There's an immense amount of content but it's a little too easy to tear though it. A very small amount of the content highly incentivizes grouping and all of that is entirely optional. So on the one hand it's very easy to enjoy but on the other I have very few social contacts to tie me to the game.

I'm surprised to see no fuming about the mandatory Origin install and absence from Steam in here. Is that in another thread? Not that I'm surprised at all but I'm still pretty peeved about it.

[Raydeus]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

Hey Tasky.

The Origin thing is probably due to not many actually caring enough about TOR or Origin to even type about it. <_<;

In my case by the time EAWare decided to force Origin my care index about TOR or ME3 was already so low I would've been way more peeved about the possibility of a Warriors Pokemon game even though I haven't even played any of those games in years.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

I'm surprised to see no fuming about the mandatory Origin install and absence from Steam in here. Is that in another thread? Not that I'm surprised at all but I'm still pretty peeved about it.

I think that's because anyone who just does PC gaming knows and accepts Origin is stupid but its the only way to play TOR. I honestly can't think of a better way for EA to get people on their service if they're not going to legitimately try to compete with Steam or GOG.

There was never room for another hardcore platform - PS3, 360 and Steam had it covered. EA didn't want to be a supplemental platform like Nintendo, Apple or GOG are, so they tried to force their way in anyway.

I think that - like POL - Origin will simply exist as a portal for TOR, other EA MMOs and not really much else. I mean, Steam just got seventeen new publishers to sign on and EA got... Capcom? Yay?

[Taskmage]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

Actually, Origin is in no way required for TOR. They share a login, but otherwise it's unnecessary to touch Origin software or servers to play TOR or manage your account. I was a bit surprised and relieved to discover this since as you say it seems like an obvious move to get people into their system. I was referring to the Origin requirement for ME3, though.

What really ticks me off is not so much the POL-esque useless, redundant software but this attitude behind it of not caring about giving the customer a less convenient, second-rate experience when there is already a perfectly workable system in place for no other reason than to scrape a little more profit out of their already overpriced, lackluster DLCs and insert marketing into my gameplay. I guess I'm preaching to the choir on this and other people who'd be bothered by it have already decided to vote with their dollars, but I'm too invested in this franchise to skip this purchase and I'm frustrated about how dirty it feels.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

I just don't see what's so compelling about the series.

Disposable characters and flavor text for what is otherwise a fixed story with mild fluctuations in character relationships. I see it as a gimmick other games have already used. Digital Devil Saga did it and it was just as anticlimactic.

All the big choices made in ME1 are but mere footnotes in ME2. No one talks about how Saren died. He just died and why go into the context of it. Liara shows up for DLC and the the "oh this changes everything" moment is totally undercut by the fact she's an active party member in the third game. As for ME2's cast, totally throwaway, shallow garbage except for maybe Jack, Tali and Samara. None of the character complexity or internal party bickering that I enjoyed in Dragon Age or KOTOR.

The universe is interesting, but the characters absolutely are not outside of a handful - none of who include Shepard who's just a derpy twit that's a hero whether Shepard is good, evil or dead. Adam Jensen was ambiguous as hell and he was more compelling because anything you'd choose seemed like something he could do. Shepard on the other hand is punished if the character is plays toward the middle or goes back and forth on the moral spectrum, so my only real choices in the game are hero or important douchebag.

If they had a lead that just kept its damn mouth shut and let other people talk we could have had at least had a game that resembled KOTOR or DA:O and been more charming for it.

[Raydeus]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

It really says something about my perception of ME when thinking back on the stuff I actually liked about it I come up with:

- Exploring planets in the MAKO and scanning systems
- Arriving to a new port to explore and speaking to the locals.
- Elevators.

In that order.

The story itself was decent, and while I mainly liked the aliens (Tali, Garrus and Wrex) it was the setting and it's expasiveness what really made the game memorable (remember the first time you arrive to the Citadel? That was pretty cool.) So, when they switched more focus to the weakest part of the game for me -the characters and storyline- ME2 really took a dive for me. Even if it was a sparkly, sort of cinematic one.

[Taskmage]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

Ray, all the things you listed as actually liking are things most people actively disliked or did not enjoy enough to mention, whereas generally people latch on to the story and characters as the highlight of the franchise, so no surprise ME2 went in a direction that didn't appeal to you. =/

Other than Tali, I liked completely different characters, BBQ. Jack and Samara fell flat with me. Mordin was my favorite character; he's got both hilarious dialog and a complex backstory. I found Legion to be super interesting for his commentary on human society as well as the history of the Geth. ME has my favorite machine rebellion story because the Geth are neither ruthlessly intent on genocide nor mindlessly carrying instructions to unforeseen consequences but simply rationally self-preserving. The Joker/EDI relationship was great. I loved and frequently quote Kal'Reegar even though he is a simple character, and I hope to see more of him in ME3. I'm rooting for a Reegar-Zorah relationship because I think that would just be precious. (My wife romanced Tali but I did not.)

I play a FemShep and I thought Jennifer Hale did a great job delivering her lines with character in a believable way for paragon and renegade options. I don't think the male VA does quite as good a job. My final morality meters were about 80% paragon and 50% renegade iirc, which is enough paragon for almost anything and enough flexibility not to be too concerned about min-maxing conversations, though admittedly that might not have been possible without maximum imported stats from my ME1 character who I played the same way. I was diplomatic with my ostensible allies but ruthless towards enemies and anyone who tried my patience (Turian counselor, Khalisah al-Jilani) and managed to construct a character within the framework that I could really get behind. My wife played her Shepard as a total boy scout which was a little tedious for me, and my attempts to play full Renegade have always been aborted before they got off the ground when I quickly tired of being a self-important contrarian prick.

I will agree with you the points of missing squad banter and ME1 decisions not having big, visible carry-over, but I accept the design decisions. There's a lot less farting around in town hunting quest nodes than in say DA:O, and thus a lot less time where injecting casual dialog would be appropriate. The squadmate chemistry mostly got pushed off into dedicated cutscenes that don't really give the full effect. It's still there during missions, but there's a limit to what you can experience in a single playthough. The dialog during Jack's loyalty mission has a completely different character if you bring Miranda versus Mordin or even Jacob. The glossing over of ME1 choices was, developers said, an unfortunate constraint of being the middle game in the trilogy. Events had to progress in more or less the same way to lead to a common starting point of ME3, so they were limited in how much they could alter the setting. Maybe that explanation flies with you and maybe it doesn't; I'm at peace with it. Allegedly the gloves are off for ME3 since it isn't planned to lead into anything. The course of events and possible outcomes are supposed to vary wildly compared to ME1&2.

New media today though not a whole ton of substance to it. Lots of returning VAs and one new one who's already been announced:

[Raydeus]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

Ray, all the things you listed as actually liking are things most people actively disliked or did not enjoy enough to mention, whereas generally people latch on to the story and characters as the highlight of the franchise, so no surprise ME2 went in a direction that didn't appeal to you. =/

Yeah, that's pretty depressing. Isn't it?


The old BioWare would've probably made something that expanded on both aspects of the game. But EAWare... well, at least I'm glad they make it so easy for me to boycott them.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

The glossing over of ME1 choices was, developers said, an unfortunate constraint of being the middle game in the trilogy

I've heard excuses like that before and I don't buy it. Moreover, why would they write everyone in ME2 as a potential red ensign if they were important to the plot of ME3? Their stories will be footnotes because there obviously are some characters lined up for the main party already, such as Liara. She's so important she was apparently exempt from the entire plot of ME2 save for some DLC - which they'll just pretend happened whether you played that DLC or not, I'd bet.

Kasumi and Zaeed were so painfully dull I doubt they'd even matter or be included in ME3 and certainly not any more developed than they were in ME2.

ME2 had a bad premise. They tried to make it The Empire Strikes Back and a cliffhanger, yet they hyped it as "They say its a suicide mission - prove them wrong." They left no room for surprises and pretty much everyone who played ME2 played it so everyone lived. Now they can take Easy Street on writing the third. If Saren was a footnote anyone can be.

People are going to be disappointed, I think. I don't think Harbinger makes for that great of an ultimate threat, at least, not as compelling of an antagonist as the Illusive man and if Illusive Man doesn't pull some major shit in this game, I don't think I'll be giving Bioware's games a chance again even from the used bin.

[jenova_9]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

mew!!!! Epic epic mew mew trailer!!!!!!!

=^^=

[Taskmage]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

The canon face is a little too soft and cute, imo, at least as it's shown in this trailer, but Jennifer Hale's voice acting is incredible and FemShep will always be the "real" Shepard to me.

That trailer is awesome. Almost awesome enough to make me forget about my annoyance at the mandatory Origin install that'll come with ME3. Still super excited about the game itself.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

Mandatory Origin install
Stupid forced multiplayer that affects single player campaign
Two spin-off products that also affect the campaign, both iOS stuff
Pre-order exclusives
Online pass

Can't wait to buy the inevitable 360 trilogy collection used.

The canon face is a little too soft and cute, imo, at least as it's shown in this trailer, but Jennifer Hale's voice acting is incredible and FemShep will always be the "real" Shepard to me.

Still better than default ManShep's derp face. FemShep at least got put up to a vote. Guys might have wanted something too feminine, but hey, its pretty rare that a redhead would be picked so there's that going for her.

Than again, FemShep moves like a dude and has his fail dance. Clearly some of that VA budget couldn't have gone toward mo-capping a woman for FemShep.

[Taskmage]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

Than again, FemShep moves like a dude and has his fail dance. Clearly some of that VA budget couldn't have gone toward mo-capping a woman for FemShep.

According to the FB post that went with this trailer, FemShep in ME3 has unique animations.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Mass Effect 3 co-op multiplayer trailer! Special Forces!

Well, that's a start. I think I noticed DA2 had some of that as well.